Hey Everybody!

I wanted to tell you all that the 12 Days of TRX-MAS is off to a flying start! You’ve all done a wonderful job this week, and the numbers in class have been higher than ever! Congratulations!

If you know me, you know that I really enjoy getting feedback from people. It helps me make my classes and training better, and it keeps me sharper. Well, believe it or not, I have this one person who regularly attends and gives me a lot of feedback. He had a great idea, so now I’m going to keep you sharp by implementing this idea right away. This week, we are going to flip-flop the upper and lower body days. This will help all of you who couldn’t make it on a particular leg day or upper body day to experience different types of workouts. So, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be leg days. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday will be upper body days. I can’t wait! It’s going to be great!

Good luck in the final week of the competition, and let’s keep it rollin’!

Yesterday, while waiting for a session to start at work I decided to get a mini workout in. I asked my colleague to hold the boxercise pads for me and put me through my paces. Five minutes. That’s all it took to nearly kill me. I was exhausted, and breathing so hard that it triggered an asthma attack. It occurred to me that I’ve done one hardcore cardio workout since coming back from New York. That’s one workout in three months. I can’t get over how quickly my cardiovascular fitness has declined. Got to step it up. I don’t want to go back to where I was.

Today I would like to take you through a great circuit training workout.

We are going to do this workout in a circuit fashion once again – 6 exercises. But this time, we are going to be working a little bit longer and recovering for a little less time. We are also going to finish 3 circuits instead of 2. To top it off, the intervals are going to be a little more challenging as well! So let’s get started.

1. Step Push-Offs. You are going to need a bench or a box, or some elevated surface to step up on for this exercise. Take your left foot up onto the bench and place a weight in your right hand, at the shoulder. Push off your left leg and drive your right arm with the weight into the air, placing your right foot on the bench as you complete the movement. Now, as you listen to the program on you headphones, I will be guiding you through the exercises. I will also tell you when to switch legs, when to rest, and how to perform the movements properly. You will be doing roughly 22 seconds on each side for a total of 45 seconds. When both sides are done you will have 30 seconds of rest before moving into the next exercise.

2. Planking on the Stability Ball. This is exactly like planking on the floor but it is a little more challenging. Place your forearms on the ball and feet on the floor. Your core should be tight and your body nice and straight. Do this for 45 seconds and then rest for 30 before moving onto yet another core movement.

3. Back Extensions. Place your abdomen on the stability ball, anchor your feet against a wall behind you, and place your arms by the side of your head. Wrap your torso around the stability ball like a reverse sit-up and come back up so that your body is straight once again. Do this for 45 seconds and then we’re moving on after 30 seconds of rest.

4. Push-ups. Do as many as you can do in 45 seconds. Keep your body straight. If you can’t finish from the feet, finish from the knees. Whatever you do, do not give up! Give yourself 30 seconds of rest after you have finished.

5. Squat presses. This is an excellent full-body movement. Grab a pair of dumbbells, one in each hand. Get yourself into a squat position. You can also do this against a wall with a stability ball between your back and the wall. The more advanced movement is free-standing. Hold the weights beside your head, go down into a squat. As you push up, push the weights above your head. As you squat down once more, bring the weights back down beside your head. Do as many reps as you do in a controlled fashion for 45 seconds. You are going to feel your heart pounding! There is a lot of muscle involved in this full body movement so you are going to burn a lot of calories. Take 30 seconds of rest before moving on to your last exercise of the circuit.

6. Side Plank. Grab your mat and place yourself on your side. Push yourself up into a side plank using your forearm and feet for support. Make sure your core is strong. Do 45 seconds on one side and switch over and do 45 seconds on the other. You are now finished circuit 1! Take a minute or two to grab some water and jog on the spot for active recovery. Active recovery means you are able to recover your breathing while keeping the muscles warm. Repeat the entire circuit twice more.

We will finish the workout with some calorie crunching interval training on the cardio machines. So jump on the treadmill, the bike, the rower, whatever it is that you want. This time we are going to go all out for 10 minutes: 10 seconds fast with 30 seconds recovery. You are looking at about 45-50 minutes

Fitness and Fat Loss Expert, Yuri Elkaim, helps thousands of busy health conscious individuals lose fat while sculpting lean muscle with just 3 short enjoyable workouts a week. Try his acclaimed Fitter U Fitness fat burning workouts for free by visiting www.fitterufitness.com today!

When I work with my clients, one of the key elements that I incorporate into all of our workouts is INTENSITY. In my view, intensity is the most critical aspect of any exercise regime and can mean the difference between someone who reaches their goals and someone who doesn’t.

Increasing your workout’s intensity will stimulate your body to burn more calories and induce a greater cardiovascular response. It will also allow you to have a more time efficient workout.

If you are looking to burn fat and become more toned, then increasing your exercise intensity is critical. Many people have the misconception that if you workout at a higher intensity you will no longer be burning fat since you will be in your “cardio zone”. Whereas, if you keep your intensity low for a longer duration you will burn more fat since you will be in your “fat burning zone”. Let me clarify this for you once and for all.

By training at a low intensity (<70% max) it is true that you use fat as your predominant source of fuel. While exercising at a higher intensity (>75% max) your main fuel source is carbohydrate but you will ultimately burn more calories. And since 1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories, the ultimate goal is to burn as many calories as possible to create a negative energy balance!

One of the best ways to achieve this intensity is through the use of full-body compound circuit training (strength training) in conjunction with interval training (on the cardio equipment). The benefit of full body compound training is that since it utilizes more muscle in any given movement you burn more calories. The intensity of the workout also means that each exercise becomes more challenging as your heart rate is sustained at a much higher level.

Here are a couple of benefits to following an exercise program combining circuit training and interval training:

1. Intervals and circuits vastly reduce boredom. Traditional steady state cardio training and/or weight lifting can become quite boring. Interval training and circuit training offer more variety and excitement to your workouts.

2. Interval training increases post-exercise energy expenditure (calories burned following exercise) more than steady-state exercise, which means that more fat is burned. After intense exercise, the body needs extra calories as it works to repair muscles, replace energy stores (i.e. carbohydrate) and restore the body to its normal state (e.g. reduce heart rate). As this can take many hours, you will keep on burning more calories long after the workout is over. In fact, research shows that metabolic rate is higher for several hours following interval training compared to steady state exercise.

3. Interval training burns more calories. As an example, 30 minutes on an Elliptical machine using a steady state program will burn roughly 292 calories, whereas 30 minutes of intervals will burn approximately 584 calories!

Here is a sample workout that will leave you huffing and puffing:

WARM-UP
bike, treadmill, elliptical, rower 5-10 min

CIRCUIT (45 seconds for each exercise, with 15 seconds rest between exercises) 5-7 min
Lunge walks with lateral raises

Plank (on stability ball)

Squats with medicine ball shoulder press

Push-ups

Side Bridges

Reverse Pull-ups

Burpies

INTERVAL TRAINING (cardio equipment)
20 sec @ 100% : 40 sec @ 70% x 5 5 min

Repeat Circuit and Interval 3 times

Total Workout Time: 45 – 60 min

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Fitness and Fat Loss Expert, Yuri Elkaim, helps thousands of busy health conscious individuals lose fat while sculpting lean muscle with just 3 short enjoyable workouts a week. Try his acclaimed Fitter U Fitness fat burning workouts for free by visiting www.fitterufitness.com today!

Here is a simple interval training treadmill workout routine for beginners.

Just watch the video and follow along.

Interval training has been shown to be the most effective cardiovascular training method for improving cardiovascular endurance, sport-specific performance, boosting metabolic rate, and burning fat!

With such amazing accolades to its name, interval training should be used by anyone and everyone interested in any of the aforementioned benefits.

But how do you start interval training? What cardio machines do you use? And what type of interval training protocol do you follow?

To make your life much easier, I’ve taken the time to answer these questions by providing you with some tried, tested, and true interval cardio programs that will spice up your workouts – and in less time!

Throw these interval workouts alongside your resistance training workouts 2-3 times per week and just watch how you’re going to look and feel. Ensure that you get a good 5-10 minute warm-up before beginning your interval workouts.

Running Workout #1

Purpose: burning fat

Interval protocol: 10 sec @ 100%: 30 sec @ 60% x 18 = 12 minutes

Running Workout #2

Purpose: speed/anaerobic running endurance (great for 5k runners)

Interval training protocol: 1 minute @ 85%: 2 minutes @ 60% x 5 = 15 minutes

Running Workout #3

Purpose: aerobic power endurance and metabolism boost for maximum post-workout calorie “afterburn”.

Interval protocol: 2 minutes @ 90%: 1 minute @ 60% x 4 = 12 minutes

Yuri Elkaim is one of the world’s leading fitness and sports conditioning experts. You can take his Treadmill Trainer interval training running programs for a free test spin by visiting mytreadmilltrainer.com and learn more about the best running workouts to get you fitter and running faster than ever before!

Today I want to talk to you about interval training. I’ve had a lot of questions recently about how often they should interval train. For instance, if you are using a running program which is based on interval training, I normally tell people to do the program twice a week. However, a lot of people want to know if they can do it 3, 4, or even 5 times a week.

To give you more clarification, interval training, for those who don’t know, is really just a combination of higher intensity and lower intensity bouts of exercise that are specifically cardiovascular related. So, if you are on the treadmill or running outdoors, it’s pretty much a faster running pace followed by a jogging pace, and those two actions are repeated one after the other. Studies consistently show that interval training is the best way to improve your cardiovascular capacity, burn calories, and save time on your workouts.

So the question was, how often should I interval train every week? I am going to make it very simple for you. The majority of the scientific research shows that 2-3 times a week is more than enough. Ideally, you will want to give yourself 24-48 hours of rest in-between sessions.

For example, if you go for an interval run on Monday, you’ll want to go for your next interval training session on Wednesday or Thursday, and then perform your next session on Saturday or Sunday. On your days of rest, you can do more long duration exercises that are a little bit less intense. Or, you can do other cross-conditioning exercises at the gym – it’s entirely up to you!

So there we have it, our answer to the question of the month, “how often do I do interval training?” It’s very simple: 2-3 times a week is all you need.

Fitness and Fat Loss Expert, Yuri Elkaim, helps thousands of busy health conscious individuals get fit and lose fat with just 2 workouts per week. Try them for free by visiting www.myTreadmillTrainer.com today!

Here’s a helpful video on how to run faster put together by Yuri Elkaim. He is an advocate of interval training and has some really good workouts and videos which I’ll share on this blog.

The weather was really brutal out there tonight.  It was in the 40s with wind driven rain.  The turnout was a little sparse, but the usual suspects were there.  We ran a 3 X (800, 600, 600) meter workout.  The goal was to run at 5K pace.  I had not problems running the workout.  I was better than 5K pace and for the most part, I never felt like I was running too hard.  With the weather being so tough, the warm-up and cool-downs were at a brisk 8:02 min/mile pace.

I was happy that we got the workout in tonight.  It would have been easy to bag it, but having other folks there really held each of us accountable.  Nica, Julie and I even did the cool-down mile.  Although it was brutal, in hindsight, it was a fun workout.  There is something about braving and surviving the elements that makes it worthwhile.  It may not seem like a huge accomplishment, but in the daily grind of life, it was a victory of runners against mother nature.

Hey everyone! On the 2nd day of TRX-MAS, I thought I’d give to you: an article on the benefits of training with this amazing piece of exercise equipment. I know, it’s not very sing-songy, but I think you’ll get the point.

For the better part of the last year and a half, I have been training with the TRX. Like all exercises, diets and workouts, I was very skeptical at first. For a month after I started working here, I just walked by this mysterious black and yellow strap. I went through a mental list of pluses and negatives. It wasn’t until Ian conned me into giving it a try, that I really started to take it seriously.

As you know, I have trained in several martial arts. My favorite is Wing Chun Kung Fu. Wing Chun works on natural body positioning and a very tenuous, practical strength, that is easily transferable into explosive power. For years, I fought the battle of conventional exercise vs. natural movement and power. I love exercise, but I also love having that explosive pliability that Wing Chun provides.

So there I was; it was my workout day, and I was staring down the TRX. It wasn’t high noon, but there was about to be a showdown. I began with squats and rows—ouch! The splendor and glory of the “burn”, had come to visit me. Rep after rep, exercise after exercise, I twisted, jumped, pushed, pulled and transitioned my way into an incredible workout. What was even more astonishing, is that I felt blasted, but not bulky and cumbersome. I had found my new milieu, and it was going to change my ideas about exercise forever.

In light of all that I have experienced, and with the recent 12 Days of TRX-MAS competition, I thought you would like a little more insight as to the benefits. So here they are, the top 10 reasons for trying the TRX:

1. Utilize natural body positioning to strengthen.
2. Develop a tensile type of strength.
3. Work power and isolation movements.
4. Cardio, as well as strength.
5. Plyometric exercise.
6. Take it on vacation.
7. Anchor it almost anywhere.
8. Utilize various angles and ranges of motion.
9. Maximize your workout time.
10. Because I suggested it, and I would never steer you in the wrong direction.

Research shows that doing as little as 3 half-hour sprint exercise sessions per week had the same beneficial effect on cardiovascular health as 5 hour-long exercises. Each sprint session consisted of sprinting for 30 seconds up to 6 times. This was interspersed with a 4.5 minute rest interval. The outcome of this study may help address the time concerns of busy individuals who need a short exercise routine to help them become healthier. The biggest problem with most people when it comes to exercise, is a lack of time.

No Time for Exercise

A lot of people claim that they would exercise more if they had more time. I think it’s just a misappropriation of priorities. Time and time again, I have seen busy people who could never find time for exercise, suddenly put it as a top priority after a mild heart attack. Some people need a wake-up call. Some times, the wake up call comes too late.

Lack of Exercise Related to Cardiovascular Diseases

Major cardiovascular diseases include coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure and peripheral vascular disease. The American Heart Association states that exercise reduces risk of cardiovascular disease. Relative risk of coronary heart disease associated with physical inactivity ranges from 1.5 to 2.4. The increased risk is comparable with that observed for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and cigarette smoking.

Endurance  and Interval Training

Endurance training are exercises such as jogging, cycling, swimming or the like, that you do at a steady pace for a prolonged period. The exercise duration could be up to 1 hour. These are the type of exercises that most people are accustomed to doing.

Interval training or sprinting is a kind of exercise where one performs a cardiovascular exercise at the highest intensity possible. Most of the steady state cardiovascular exercises such as running and cycling could be done via this regime. It consists of a sprint interval where you would exert the hardest you possibly can. This is followed by a rest interval where you would reduce your intensity to catch your breath and get prepared for the next sprint.

Endurance and Interval Training Improve Cardiovascular Health

As we age, our arteries become stiffer and less elastic. The arteries lose their ability to dilate. This results in higher blood pressures and cardiovascular diseases. According to the study conducted in McMasters University and published in the American Journal of Physiology, both endurance and sprint training improved markers of cardiovascular health. This included reducing arterial stiffness and improving the ability for arteries to dilate. The impact was significant. The exercise regimes were broken down as follows;

Endurance Training  – 40 to 60 minute cycling at 65% of maximum intensity. Done 5 times a week

Interval Training – 30 second sprint followed by 4.5 minute rest. Each exercise consists of 6 cycles. Done 3 times a week

Initial studies in patients with Coronary Artery Disease and chronic heart failure have shown the effectiveness of a high intensity training regime may be greater compared with traditional endurance training regimes. High intensity aerobic interval training is now being recommended for several disease populations.

Interval Training as a Time Effective Health Solution

The interval training regime in the study above takes approximately 30 minutes. Each of the 6 cycles consist of a 30 second sprint and a 4.5 minute rest cycle. Total time taken is 5 minutes per cycle. The beauty of the interval training is that the rest cycle could be reduced as your fitness increases. The rest cycle could be reduced to 1 minute. As a result, the same exercise could be reduced to 9 minutes done 3 times a week. Compare this to doing 5 exercise sessions  of 40 minutes each of endurance training to get the same cardiovascular health benefit.

People looking for a short and intense exercise can ultimately get maximum health benefit by doing sprints with 1 minute rest intervals. In a matter of 10 minutes, one would have derived all the positive benefits of exercise on cardiovascular health.

Tags: American Heart Association, cardiovascular health, coronary heart disease, cycling, endurance training, high intensity interval training, interval training, jogging, sprints, swimming

It’s that time of year, the Holidays, when your waist band expands to match the number of days in the month. The average person gains 8-10 pounds during the Holidays. You can not afford to be average! Let’s make a big push to get into prime shape, blast fat, and allow you to enjoy your Holidays with family and friends, the way you are suppose to, rather than worrying about what you eat. Let’s make sure you are in prime shape to take on the Holiday challenge, that’s why I have created the “Fit Down the Chimney” Workout series, especially designed for you to get quick, powerful workouts that blast fat and get you out of the gym in no time.

Before I go on with the workout. I wanted to share this video from NBC.com featuring Results Fitness Training and Columbus’ own Allen Smith. We are really proud of Allen as well as all who participated in the “Battle of the Bulge”. You get a chance to see what it’s like to work out here at TLAC and how we try to reach out to people in Columbus, Indiana. It’s a great clip.

The “Fit Down the Chimney” series is designed around metabolic conditioning and muscle fatiguing exercises, allowing you to

Results Fitness Training "Fit Down the Chimney"

burn your muscles faster and more effectively. This IS a fast moving, intense, series, so make sure you are ready for this type of exercise before you begin. I believe that anyone CAN perform this series, it’s simply how hard are you willing to work for what you want. This series is broken down into 3 workouts. Perform one workout 3 times per week, then move onto the next workout the following week. This will lead you up to the final week where you can choose your favorite workout before your holidays with friends and family.

FIT DOWN THE CHIMNEY Workout Series

Workout A

5 Minute Warm Up (Jump Rope, Run, Bike, etc)

Metabolic Conditioning

10 TRX Rows

10 TRX Push Ups

10 TRX Single Leg Squats Left

10 TRX Single Leg Squats Right

Repeat series for 8 Minutes.

Strength

20 Prisoner Squats

10 Jump Squats

20 Prisoner Squats

10 Jump Squats

20 TRX Tricep Press

Workout B

5 Minute Warm Up

Metabolic Conditioning

25 Kettlebell Swings

100 Jump Rope

15 TRX Reverse Crunch

Repeat 3’s

Strength

21 TRX Rows

21 Squat and Press

21 TRX Hip Press

15 TRX Rows

15 Squat and Press

15 TRX Hip Press

9 TRX Rows

9 Squat and Press

9 TRX Hip Press

Workout C

5 Minute Warm Up (Jump Rope, Run, Bike, etc)

Metabolic Conditioning

1:00 – Wood Chopper (Sledge Hammer)

1:00 – Squat and Overhead Press

1:00 – Jump Rope

Rest and recover

Repeat 3x’s

Strength

25 TRX Rows

25 TRX Push Ups

25 Prisoner Squats

Did anyone take advantage of the BURN open house last weekend? I managed to get a spot in the Build and Burn session with Beth B., which was awesome. I really liked the strength training mixed in with speed and resistance intervals on the treadmill. As aforementioned, I rarely mix up my workouts, and often rely on some standard settings on the treadmill. I felt really challenged in the BURN workout, and motivated to try and replicate some of the intervals when I’m working out on my own. I highly recommend BURN to anyone who is trying to shake up their usual routine and get quicker results in a short amount of time.

I also squeezed in some cooking this past weekend, and made a great spicy soup recipe that I want to pass on. The following recipe for Jamaican Sweet Potato Kale soup came from my friend Steph, who I take yoga classes with frequently. She is a self-proclaimed soup-nut, and has tons of cheap and easy soup recipes to recommend, so there will be more to come.

This particular recipe is great because of the few ingredients, very little prep time, and super healthy super-food inclusions of kale and sweet potatoes. As I mentioned in my Kale-chips recipe, kale is rich with vitamins, anti-oxidants, and fiber. Sweet potatoes offer carotenoids in their bright orange color, and are a good source of vitamin C and potassium. And coconut milk contains anti-bacterial properties. This recipe is a little fiery, so adjust the habaneros according to your preference.

Jamaican Sweet Potato Kale soup

• 1 sweet potato, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• About half a bunch of kale, de-stemmed and torn into bite size pieces
• 4 cups beef broth
• 1 can lite coconut milk
• 1-3 habanero peppers, skins pricked

Bring broth to a boil in a large pot, and reduce to three cups. Add potatoes, kale, coconut milk, and peppers, and simmer for one hour, covered.

-Jean

Do you talk about recipes with friends? I probably border on obsessive on this subject, but I find it really helpful for trying new dishes. And like any referral, it’s an extra safe bet that you’ll end up making something spectacular.

Week 7 of my Endurance Phase is the first week of my third mesocycle (click here for a detailed description of macrocyles, mesocycles and microcycles).  Once again, I was forced to make some modifications to the scheduled workouts because I was out-of-town.  Here are the actual workouts compared with the plan for the week of November 23 to November 29, 2009 (click here to download my plan for the Endurance Phase).  The scheduled workouts included Steady Spinning, Strength Intervals, Active Recovery and a Tempo Ride.  My actual workouts included a session on the elliptical machine in my hotel, as well as Strength Interval, Steady Spinning and Active Recovery sessions.

I had three good workouts (all indoors) on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.  I also felt good for Friday’s recovery spin, however I started to come down with a mild cold (slight soreness in throat).  I actually felt fine walking around but just died on Saturday’s ride.  No energy at all and was gasping for breath at times so I cut it short.  I should be fine for Monday’s workout.  As always, I’ll let you know how it goes!

NEXT POST – December 7, 2009

Cycle Log: Endurance Phase Week 8

Avui he corregut la cursa Jean Bouin, de 1okm i bastant malparida, perquè l’últim quilòmetre fot súper pujada, ja que s’enfila a dalt de Montjuïc des del Paral.lel. És un trencapulmons!

Hi anava amb bastant precaució. Era el segon cop que hi corria, l’anterior va ser fa uns 5 anys amb el Jordi Benet. La meva arribada a meta va ser triomfal, amb una súper trallada res més creuar la línia d’arrivada.

Però avui estic súper content, perquè malgrat que l’últim km et trenca i acabes baldat i tal, és la meva cursa de 10km més ràpida. Acabo de consultar els resultats i l’he fet en 48′51″, i he quedat el 2712è. (devíem ser uns 6.000)

Estic content perquè vol dir que estic més en forma que fa cinc anys i perquè l’entrenament que estic seguint al gimnàs funciona.

De fet, des del gener passat que vaig córrer la mitja marató que no feia corregudes tan llargues. Al gimnàs faig peses i ‘interval training’. Consisteix en córrer no més de 12 minuts alternant, per exemple, mig minut a 17,8km/h i un minut a 9km/h. Els canvis de ritme et trenquen. Diuen que és la millor manera d’aprimar-te, perquè és tan intens que segueixes cremant calories hores després d’haver acabat. També va molt bé per prerarar el cor i els músculs per grans esforços. I 10-12 minuts, dos cops per setmana es fa en un plis!!!

Per tant, de cara a la propera mitja marató (m’he apuntat a la Mitja de Granollers, la més important d’Espanya), seguiré entrenant en intervals. Total, millorar la meva marca de l’any passat no costarà gaire. I m’ho passaré bé!!!

It’s been a while since I’ve written – sorry about that, I think I’ve hit a wall fatigue-wise here in the last few days, can’t seem to keep my eyes open…BUT, I do have updates on Spa Day Thanksgiving and dress shopping, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, I just wrote a post for the Girls on the Run blog about my training goal for the ING Georgia 2010 Half-Marathon. I’ve copied it below. As most of you know, I’ve signed up to train for this race while raising money for GOTR Atlanta. The great thing about this fundraising effort is that I don’t have to raise an insane amount of money. If I get every close friend to donate between $5-10, I will easily make my goal of $500. And, if you do decide to give $20 instead, I’ll guarantee you a finish time of under 2 hours. Check out my fundraising page and please consider a small donation to a world-class organization that has changed the lives of many young girls.

From the “Why We Run” blog:

It’s about time for me to begin thinking about my training schedule. For the third year in a row I’ve signed up to run the ING Georgia Half-Marathon in March. This year, however, I’m doing things a little differently:

1. I’m running the half as a GOTR SoleMate to raise money for Girls on the Run of Atlanta.
2. I’ve set an actual goal: to complete the half in under 2 hours (even if it’s one second under 2).

It’s not that I didn’t have goals during the other half-marathons. It’s just that those goals were all the same: completion. I ended up completing them both with great times for me: 2:04 the first year and 2:02 last year. So you see where I’m going with my desire to get under 2 in 2010…

The problem is, as we all know, it’s not as easy as it sounds. I don’t  know exactly how I shaved 2 minutes off my time last year. I think it was a combination of factors. While I didn’t train as hard as I did the first year, I had a much higher fitness baseline at the beginning of last year’s training season. In addition, I did my long runs on early and freezing Saturday mornings with West Stride’s Strider Support Group. For those of you who don’t know about West Stride’s routes, those hills make downtown Atlanta look like the flat plains of Middle America…

This year I’m planning to have all of these advantages plus some. My fitness baseline is even stronger than it was last year – at this point I can very easily run 6 miles at any given time, which is not a bad distance to start with given the race is still about 5 months away. And, my plan is to continue those Saturday long and hilly runs with West Stride. On top of these things, I’ve recently become a convert to the idea of interval training. Since being in South Africa, I’ve done a lot of strength training interspersed with short and intense bouts of cardio. I wasn’t convinced that this could be effective until I went out for an outside jog last weekend and easily completed a 10K despite that I was running at a much higher altitude than I’m used to and hadn’t run 6 miles for almost 2 months. I really want to continue this type of training when I return to the U.S. – it’s stimulating to me, and I’m seeing serious results after less than a month on this type of program.

On top of this, I found an article today on Active.com that provides some excellent tips on pushing past those last brutal miles of a race. For me, this is the key. I seem to go really strong for the first 10 miles of a half-marathon, then peter out right around Juniper St. (in the case of the ING Atlanta at least). As it turns out, I may just not be pacing myself enough early in the run. Check out the article, it’s short and simple but I imagine if you take the time to plot out a strategy and set a pace it could be very effective.

You may be saying, – “well Nadine, it sounds like you’ve got under 2 hours in the bag based on all of these progressive strategies.” Not quite my friends. I’ve got a few barriers to this kind of training, this year in particular. First, I’ll be planning a wedding during this time frame. Second, I’ll be starting a new job that could very well be the most time intensive that I’ve ever had. And three, tennis, not running, is actually my priority sport. Having spent 2 months in South Africa for work during November and December, I have a lot of catching up to do in the tennis department – I imagine the majority of my spare time will be spent working on my tennis game. So, how am I possibly going to fit in tennis, wedding planning, working, strength and interval training, and a weekly long run, into my days? (while also trying to sleep, hang out with friends, and maintain a relationship with my soon-to-be-husband?)

Frankly, I don’t know the answer. Only time will tell. I welcome any thoughts, comments, or suggestions you have on how to achieve the ultimate balance between achieving a major training goal and the rest of daily life…

It’s about time for me to begin thinking about my training schedule. For the third year in a row I’ve signed up to run the ING Georgia Half-Marathon in March. This year, however, I’m doing things a little differently:

1. I’m running the half as a GOTR SoleMate to raise money for Girls on the Run of Atlanta.
2. I’ve set an actual goal: to complete the half in under 2 hours (even if it’s one second under 2).

It’s not that I didn’t have goals during the other half-marathons. It’s just that those goals were all the same: completion. I ended up completing them both with great times for me: 2:04 the first year and 2:02 last year. So you see where I’m going with my desire to get under 2 in 2010…

The problem is, as we all know, it’s not as easy as it sounds. I don’t  know exactly how I shaved 2 minutes off my time last year. I think it was a combination of factors. While I didn’t train as hard as I did the first year, I had a much higher fitness baseline at the beginning of last year’s training season. In addition, I did my long runs on early and freezing Saturday mornings with West Stride’s Strider Support Group. For those of you who don’t know about West Stride’s routes, those hills make downtown Atlanta look like the flat plains of Middle America…

This year I’m planning to have all of these advantages plus some. My fitness baseline is even stronger than it was last year – at this point I can very easily run 6 miles at any given time, which is not a bad distance to start with given the race is still about 5 months away. And, my plan is to continue those Saturday long and hilly runs with West Stride. On top of these things, I’ve recently become a convert to the idea of interval training. Since being in South Africa, I’ve done a lot of strength training interspersed with short and intense bouts of cardio. I wasn’t convinced that this could be effective until I went out for an outside jog last weekend and easily completed a 10K despite that I was running at a much higher altitude than I’m used to and hadn’t run 6 miles for almost 2 months. I really want to continue this type of training when I return to the U.S. – it’s stimulating to me, and I’m seeing serious results after less than a month on this type of program.

On top of this, I found an article today on Active.com that provides some excellent tips on pushing past those last brutal miles of a race. For me, this is the key. I seem to go really strong for the first 10 miles of a half-marathon, then peter out right around Juniper St. (in the case of the ING Atlanta at least). As it turns out, I may just not be pacing myself enough early in the run. Check out the article, it’s short and simple but I imagine if you take the time to plot out a strategy and set a pace it could be very effective.

You may be saying, – “well Nadine, it sounds like you’ve got under 2 hours in the bag based on all of these progressive strategies.” Not quite my friends. I’ve got a few barriers to this kind of training, this year in particular. First, I’ll be planning a wedding during this time frame. Second, I’ll be starting a new job that could very well be the most time intensive that I’ve ever had. And three, tennis, not running, is actually my priority sport. Having spent 2 months in South Africa for work during November and December, I have a lot of catching up to do in the tennis department – I imagine the majority of my spare time will be spent working on my tennis game. So, how am I possibly going to fit in tennis, wedding planning, working, strength and interval training, and a weekly long run, into my days? (while also trying to sleep, hang out with friends, and maintain a relationship with my soon-to-be-husband?)

Frankly, I don’t know the answer. Only time will tell. I welcome any thoughts, comments, or suggestions you have on how to achieve the ultimate balance between achieving a major training goal and the rest of daily life…

Finished a workout. Checked my email and twitter and found someone had sent me the following quote! Right on time , noolmusic!

Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever. Lance Armstrong

And wonder of wonders my wife worked out with me. This is a wonder because I’ve asked her numerous times to work out with me in our near 20 year relationship and it has been a rare thing. Also, she actually asked me if she could work out with me about a week or so ago, maybe even two weeks ago and we just got to it. I’m looking forward to continuing this journey together. We started out with the introductory Turbulence Training workout for sedentary people.

Intro Level Workout Week 1 Day 1 Workout A
All of the exercises are done in superset or circuit fashion.
Warmup A) Lying Hip Extension 2×5
Warmup B) Kneeling Pushup 2×5
Warmup C) Stability Ball Leg Curl 2×5

1A) Lying Hip Extension 2×5
1B) Plank 2X15 secs

2A) Bodyweight Squat 2×10
2B) Bird Dog 2×5/side

3A) Kneeling Pushups 2×8
3B) Side Plank 2×5 secs / side

4A) Stick-ups 2×10
4B) Ab Curl-up 2×6

She did everything the same as me except the kneeling push-ups where she did 2×5. She did great! We followed this with Beginner Interval Workout A on our stationary bike w/ arm-pump handles.

Minute by Minute     Type     Perceived Intensity Level

1                                     Warm up                    3 out of 10

2                                     Warm up                   4 out of 10

3                                     Warm up                   4 out of 10

4                                     Warm up                   5 out of 10

5                                     Warm up                   5 out of 10

6                                        Hard                       8out of 10

7                                        East                       3 out of 10

8                                        Easy                        3 out of 10

9                                        Hard                         8 out of 10

10                                     Easy                           3 out of 10

11                                     Easy                           3 out of 10

12                                     Hard                           8 out of 10

13                                     Easy                           3 out of 10

14                                     Easy                           3 out of 10

15                                     Hard                           8 out of 10

16                                Cool Down                   3 out of 10

17                                Cool Down                    3 out of 10

18                                 Cool Down                   3 out of 10

19                                 Cool Down                  3 out of 10

20                                 Cool Down                  3 out of 10

Next workout is on Monday. Tomorrow and Sunday we’ll do some light exercise like walking for 30 minutes or so.

Burst Training is now the wave of the future and time is no longer your excuse. Get the workout you need in as little as 10 minutes a day. Burn fat and calories, no impact on back and joints, increase endurance, help lower blood pressure, strengthen muscles, improve balance, and help balance hormones are just a few of the benefits you can obtain from burst training.

I love this type of workout because it is short, very effective, it challenges your Strength, Endurance, Cardiovascular system and is excellent for fat loss!

Ok, here’s how you do it…..

First, choose two moves to do back to back. I’d recommend compound movements and ones that focus different areas. E.g. Push / Pull

Or a compound lift with a conditioning exercise. E.g. Squat / Burpees or Kettlebell Swings  

Mike Mahler - One Arm KB Swing

Simply do 10 reps of one exercise, followed by 10 reps of a different exercise, then 9 and 9, 8 and 8, and so on… all the way to 1 and 1.

Kettlebells are excellent for this type of workout!

Enjoy.

Anyone wanting to have sustained weight loss should focus on firing up their metabolism. Your metabolism is like the engine of your car. A higher metabolism is like a 6000 cc engine. A sluggish metabolism is like a 1500 cc engine. Obviously, the 6000 cc engine is more powerful and consumes more fuel. In the same manner, an active metabolism will burn more fat and keep you more energized and active throughout the day. A sluggish metabolism can lead to a lot of frustration when trying to lose weight. Read our earlier article on “6 Symptoms of a Sluggish Metabolism” to identify if you do have a sluggish metabolism in the first place.

Here are 7 steps that you could take to fire up your metabolism;

1.  Weight Resistance Training – This is the most effective way to fire up your metabolism. Your metabolism is proportional to the amount of muscles you carry. A lot of men and women could have very high metabolisms if they only maintained all the muscles that they had at the age of 21. As people age, they lose a lot of muscles and the metabolism is compromised. Doing weight-bearing exercises is one way to ensure that your body holds on to your precious muscles. This keeps your metabolism firing at a high level.

2.  Stop All Forms of Dieting and Starvation Diets – Diets activate your starvation response. When this happens, the body’s metabolism dips. The body will be in this mode so long as there is a shortage of food. This is a result of our internal survival programming. Someone trying to lose weight should not reduce their food consumption by more than 10%.

3.  Replace Steady State Cardio with Interval training - Steady state cardio is the jogging and swimming that most people do. This also includes the various cardio machines that are so popular in gyms. These exercises are very effective for enhancing health but are not the greatest time investment if you want to set your metabolism on fire. Setting your metabolism on fire is exactly what interval training does. For more information on how to do intervals, please read “How to Make Jogging Work for Weight Loss”.

4.  Always Consume Breakfast - Breakfast brings the body out of fasting. This ensures that the body does not activate its starvation response. When someone skips breakfast, it send a signal to the brain that there is a shortage of food. Why else would someone not eat in the morning? Little does your survival programming know that you are too busy to eat. Your survival mechanism does not know that there is an abundance of food around you and that there is no need to activate the starvation response.

5.  Consume 3 Main Meals on Time - Breakfast, lunch and dinner should be consumed at approximately the same time every day within a tolerance of half hour. The body senses erratic eating times as a signal of food shortage. This puts your survival programming at risk of activating the starvation response.

6. Consume Healthy Snacks in Between Main Meals – Snacks between main meals keeps the metabolism revving. Furthermore, a lot of energy is expanded for the digestion of food. Possibilities for snacks include nuts and fruits.

7.  Consume Hot Peppers such as Cayenne pepper - Capsaicins are the active ingredient in pepper. Capsaicin increases body temperature which increases metabolism. This is because the body needs to produce more energy to keep the body temperature elevated.

8.  Consume Green Tea - Green tea has been shown to boost metabolism. Green tea also has lots of anti-oxidants that have tremendous health benefits.

9.  Exercise in the Morning - Morning exercise keeps the metabolism revving for the greater part of the day. Metabolism usually slows down once we go to bed at night.

10.  Have at Least 6 to 8 Hours of Sleep - Lack of sleep produces a high level of cortisol hormone which gets in the way of weight loss. Also someone who has a lack of sleep will find it very difficult to rev up his or her metabolism.

Tags: active metabolism, capsaicin, cardio, Cayenne pepper, dieting, exercise, green tea, jogging, lose weight, main meals, skipping breakfast, sleep, sluggish metabolism, starvation diets, swimming, weight loss

There’s a fallacy out that many people including us fitness pro’s believe and will tell you. That during your workouts you’re burning more fat. When the opposite actually holds true. Well, this post comes in handy simply because of this upcoming holiday season. And we all know there’s many people who are either looking to prevent the unwanted weight gain and then there’s those who will just flat out gain 5-10lbs this holiday season. What let me to think about all this, last Friday I just had a Thanksgiving lunch at my daughter’s daycare. They had the Turkey, the stuffing, greenbeans, deviled eggs, but that was about it. The rest of the remaining 3 or 4 tables were, cakes, pastries, pies, and sodas. And I know for many of you, you may just skip past everything or “leave room” for all the junk.

Anyway, if you’re wondering just how you can prevent the dreaded weight gain over the holidays, or looking for greater fat loss while getting the most out of your workouts, you probably need to know what’s really happening in the workouts. The main goal of an effective fat burning workout is not to burn fat, but to burn the most amount of sugar during your workouts.

The more sugar you can burn inside your workouts, the better off your are in burning more fat post exercise (fat that is burned in the hours and days between your workouts). Think about it this way- if you reduce your body’s sugar tank, it’s forced to make up this fuel deficit by looking for either dietary fat and/or stored body fat. And if you eat and exercise to generate the appropriate caloric deficit then you eat up any dietary fat in your system and immediately start melting off that ugly, unwanted body fat.

Maximal muscle glycogen depletion (the sugar stores in your skeletal muscle) happens in bouts of maximum effort lasting for 30-60 seconds. The 45-second work period is an awesome middle-ground to eat up as much of your muscle’s sugar stores as possible with just enough rest to allow you to be able to get ready for the next exercise/station. The selection I chose below was 50-10

When you combine the high-intensity interval training (HIIT) protocol with an alternating set sequence that engages your total body (upper body, lower body, core) to skyrocket your maximal body fat burning. It’s just like you’re getting best of both worlds: maximum intensity during each work set due to a 1-5 minute recovery period before you repeat the same movement based on your exercise order plus maximal density (total work completed per unit of time).

This training program combined with a diet high in lean proteins, natural fats, and fibrous carbohydrates and low in refined sugars and starches leads to dramatic losses in body fat and gains in lean body mass all while taking your conditioning to the next level. Get ready to melt!

So below is a simple 5 exercise bodyweight mini circuit that you can do anywhere. 5 exercises for 50 sec 10 sec rest and that equals 1 round. Repeat this same sequence for a total of 4 rounds. Give it a shot today and you can burn fat all the way up to Thanksgiving Day.

Lunge variation (Diagonal lunge)
Push Up variation (Gator Push up with legs tucked)
Pillar variation (static side pillar elevated)
Hip Extension variation (dynamic elevated 1 leg)
front pillar variation (Stability ball ocillation)

See the video below.
*Key Note*
There are multiple variations of these exercises, these are the one’s I selected to do. My intensity increased with the additional 30lbs thanks to my daughter Olivia.

Okay, not really. They are hard. Miserable and painful and hard.

But I did them today. For the first time in months, I hit up the stadium steps at SBCC, which are brutal ! Back when I was doing them regularly (um … over a year ago !!) I could do ten of them in about 20 minutes. Today I only did 8 (my legs felt like noodles ! And the burning, oh the burning …) and I didn’t even time it. But it’s a start. Trainer M assures me that there’s nothing quite so effective as intense cardio intervals for fat burning … so I’ll try to get back on the wagon and hope for some results. I’ll integrate it with my runs for the Half Marathon … remember that one ? This cold totally sidelined my cardio for the past week, so anything that I could do today was a victory (even if it was supposed to be a 4 mile run !!)

Also this morning: 165.4 !! Down 4.6 from the most ridiculous, life time high of fatness @170 lbs. Hooray. (And JesusChrist I am not running a half marathon at 170 pounds !! No freakin’ way !!)

Tomorrow: potentially big haircut day. I had my hair super short back in 2007 and have been growing it out ever since. Seems like I always want what’s on the other side of the fence, ya know ? But now that my hair is semi-long, I am forced to admit that I am really just too lazy to deal with it. It seems to be getting more unruly and frizy, in terms of texture, as I age. And honestly -well styled short hair beats sloppy long hair any day. The sad truth – I am a sloppy long hair wearer. I don’t have Jennifer Aniston’s stylist to follow me around all day, flat ironing and fanning and whatever other magic that guy does. So, no matter what hair goddesses I might envy – Aniston, Jolie, Lucy Liu or Kate Beskinsale or whomever – I am NEVER going to have that hair because, well, I have other things to do with my time. By “other things” I may mean “sleep” or “play with the dog” … but that’s my business.

Bring on the chop ! What do you think of this ???

KIDDING !!! That was on some woman’s blog under the heading “the problem with short hair …” I didn’t read any farther (further ?) but I imagine it had something to do with the idea that when you wake up with pillowhead you might look like this. Um … yeah. There’s more going on there than 8 hours in bed. Or, you could … you know … take  a shower ?

Week 5 of my Endurance Phase is the second week of my second mesocycle (click here for a detailed description of macrocyles, mesocycles and microcycles).  I made some alterations to the scheduled workouts, primarily because I was able to ride outside several times (and because I get bored very quickly).  Here are the actual workouts compared with the plan for the week of November 9 to November 15, 2009 (click here to download my plan for the Endurance Phase).  The scheduled workouts include Steady Spinning, High Cadence Spinning and Power Bursts.  I replaced Tuesday’s Power Burst session with an Active Recovery workout due to fatigue from Monday’s 2.5 hour ride.  I replaced Thursday’s High Cadence Spinning workout with a Strength Interval workout and Saturday’s Power Burst session with a 1.5 hour Zone 2 spin.

I had a great week.  I was very strong for three rides with a little leg fatigue for Tuesday’s Active Recovery session.  I had my longest ride yet with my 2.5 hour ride on a hilly course.  I also had a great Strength Interval workout, which was my first interval workout of this Endurance Phase.  Next up is a recovery week.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

NEXT POST – November 23, 2009

Cycle Log: Endurance Phase – Week 6